Let This be a Lesson
by Newbie GK
Summary: As her superhuman strength smashed open the skull of a nameless enemy ninja, she cannot help but think there must be a lesson in all of this. Complete.


**Author's Note**: I wrote this piece in response to learning that my next-door neighbor died in a car crash. She was eighteen.

**Summary**: As her superhuman strength smashed open the skull of a nameless enemy ninja, she cannot help but think there must be a lesson in all of this.

**Warning**: Set after Sasuke leaves for Sound. Heavy angst. Implied character death

**EDIT: **I decided to leave this one on here for now. It might be deleted at a later date though.

**Disclaimer**: Naruto is not mine. If it was, Sasuke would have never left Konoha.

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**Let This be a Lesson**

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_Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. – George Santayana _

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As her superhuman strength smashed open the skull of a nameless enemy ninja, she cannot help but think there must be a lesson in all of this.

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"What I am about to tell you must not leave this room."

Sakura looked at her teacher's somber expression. "What is it shishou?" she asked hesitantly, expecting the worst. Konoha had been at war for nearly three months now. And the Village Hidden in the Leaves was struggling to survive. Each day the death tolls rose. It had gotten to the point, names were only added to the memorial stone on a weekly basis. Kakashi's name was added only three days prior.

Tsunade sighed, the weary lines on her becoming more pronounced. Even her transformation technique that gave her a more youthful appearence was beginning to fade. She leaned back in her chair and fixed her student with a serious stare. Then without any more preamble, she revealed her reason for the urgent summons sent to Sakura minutes before. "Sasuke Uchiha has been spotted alive along the border to the Village Hidden in the Mist." Her amber eyes continued to watch Sakura carefully, observing her reaction.

She needn't have bothered. Sakura sat frozen to her chair, eyes wide with shock, unable to comprehend the information. Over a month ago, a Konoha spy stationed in the Sound Village reported that Orochimaru had tried taking over Sasuke's body, but that Sasuke rebelled at the last moment. The resulting fight was believed to have ended in Sasuke's death. But before they could get more information, the spy died from internal bleeding.

"So what happens now?" Naruto asked from his seat next to Sakura. He had changed in the four years since Sasuke's departure. He still would smile at other people but his once bright ocean-colored eyes had hardened into blue granite. And after so many partial transformations triggered by encounters with the Akatsuki, the once lightly visible whiskers had become deeply etched across his checks. And worst of all, the seal was weakening. Only Jiraiya would know how to rectify the problem and no one had seen him for three weeks.

"I cannot risk sending any ninja to confront him when we have so little information. If he truly did overpower and defeat Orochimaru, then his power is above that of us Sannin and beyond all of Konoha's ANBU. But there is a second possibility that is equally as frightening."

"What's that?" Naruto asked, frowning in confusion.

Before Tsunade could reply, Sakura answered for her, "Orochimaru managed to overpower him and now has the ability to combine his knowledge of forbidden jutsus with the power of the Sharingan."

Tsunade nodded. "That's right. Either way he is out of our reach."

Naruto jumped to his feet, his palms slamming her desk. "But Tsunade, we can't just-"

"Enough Naruto!" she snapped, "I know this isn't easy for you to accept but that's the way things stand right now."

"Then just let me go, I'll-"

"I am not sending you to your death!"

It wasn't the volume of her shout that stopped him, though it was loud, but the tinge of desperation and despair he could hear in her scream. Naruto knew what happened to her brother and her lover but he never realized that she worried and cared for him as much as them. He never realized that he was one of her precious people. But even so, Sasuke was one of his precious people, he couldn't just abandon him. If Sasuke was alive, Naruto had to bring him home. And if he was dead... Naruto needed to be the one who avenged him.

"Please, shishou, just consider it. I know it's risky but we are willing to accept that risk."

Tsunade looked at the girl who she seen quivering and crying the name of Sasuke more times than she could count, the girl who was desperate to become stronger, the girl that she had taken under her own wing to train because there was just something so _familiar_ about her. She looked at Sakura, the girl who had succeeded despite all odds and blossomed in adversity and just shook her head sadly.

"I'm sorry Sakura, I cannot allow it. This discussion is closed." With that, she waved her hand to dismiss them. Naruto looked ready to argue more but Sakura silenced him with a gentle hand on his arm. Together they left without saying another word. And Tsunade knew that all the sake in the world couldn't numb the pain and guilt she felt on behalf of the pair.

That night, Sakura an Naruto slipped out of Konoha carrying enough weapons to fight a small army. The guards, secretly under orders from the Hokage, did nothing to stop them.

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Sasuke wasn't hard to find, at least not for someone of his now-legendary skill and knowledge. But perhaps, he had known that they would seek him out. Perhaps he was waiting for them. Perhaps he sent hints of his whereabouts through rumors and whispered statements along the villages he passed. Perhaps, he planned it all out: where they would fight, when they would battle, their physical condition and slightly strained state of mind upon arrival – everything. Sakura would never know, but it didn't matter in any case. After two weeks of following his trail in and out and around villages, they reached him in a dusty, deserted wasteland.

Sasuke didn't say anything when they began to approach him at a slow, unhurried walking pace. He didn't even acknowledge their presence except to send a wave of Sound ninja upon them with the raising of his hand.

As the group of thirty Sound ninja approached, the pair silently slipped into a fighting stance. They had long since adapted to fighting alongside each other (_without Sasuke_) and it had become second nature to them. Nowadays they could hold an entire conversation without saying a single word.

Naruto tensed, his fists tightening. _How do you want to do this? _

Sakura smiled, and one hand reached into her weapons pouch. _Leave the minions to me._

He gave her a half-smile. _Alright if that's the way you want it._

Just before he moved, Sakura caught his eye. _Be careful. He's dangerous now._

He stopped smiling and held her eye. _I know. But I have to do this._

And so, he left.

Naruto dodged most of the wave, but the unfortunate few who got in his way received a kunai to the heart or a quick slash across their throat. He had no time for them. His battle was with Sasuke: his teammate, his rival, his friend, his brother. Nothing – not even his own life – mattered when compared to that. Yet, when Sasuke turned to look at him, Naruto couldn't help but stare in horror when he noticed that Sasuke eyes were neither black nor a Sharingan red, but a golden-green with the three typical Sharingan tomoe forming a loose triangle.

"Orochimaru."

"Yes," the voice hissed gleefully, "and no."

Naruto's eyes began to narrow into slits and turn red. The power of the nine-tailed fox stirred within him in rage and anguish. "What are you talking about?"

Orochimaru/Sasuke smirked. "We are neither," he said taking a step forward, "We are both."

With an animalistic howl, Naruto began the battle to end what started out as a competitive rivalry and had mutated into the horror story of the Sannin come back to life.

When last ninja slumped to the ground and Sakura pulled back her blood-covered fist. She dried it on the blood spattered red shirt of her childhood and looked around in order to find her teammates, her companions, her family. Two hundred meters away she spotted the man who always loved her and the man she would always love engaged in a battle to the death. Watching them exchange blow after blow, she thought to herself, _'it was never suppose to happen this way.' _

Naruto, with the other members of the Rookie Nine, were suppose to retrieve Sasuke four years ago when Sasuke left. He was suppose to rescue him before Sasuke embraced the power of the dark, forbidden jutsus that Orochimaru offered. Before the tears could dry on Sakura's cheeks and be replaced by new ones when she learned that they failed. Before Sasuke became the monster he now was.

As much as she wanted to, Sakura didn't rush over to her teammates and jump into the battle. In some strange way, she knew that her part in this epic tale was finished now. She knew that this battle started between Naruto and Sasuke four years ago in the streets of Konoha and must be finished by Naruto and Sasuke (_and only Naruto and Sasuke_) today in the deserted wasteland miles away from their village. But that didn't mean she could run away either. She had to see for herself, she had to know, that this story – this messed up, horrific story, would finally come to end with them and wouldn't plague the next generation of Konoha gennin. So she walked forward, head high and eyes glistening, to watch and wait.

Upon seeing Sasuke's face, she immediately could tell that something had gone wrong when Orochimaru tried to take over Sasuke's body. It wasn't just the eeriness of his glowing green eyes that gave it away. But the way, he moved _(like a slithering snake)_, the way Sasuke's lips appeared to have not only his usual slight condescending tilt but also something more sinister _(like a malicious demon come to life)_, and mostly the way he laughed like a happy child at each new wound that formed on Naruto's body.

Even so, she knew Sasuke remained somewhere beneath the surface. She noticed that even though he laughed at Naruto's injuries, his eyes seemed to widen in horror for a split-second first upon seeing them. She saw the way his hands would hesitate before delivering a potential deathblow. But mostly she saw the way his smirk seemed to sag with relief for a brief moment whenever Naruto landed a devastating blow on his own body, as if he wanted Naruto to kill him. As if he longed for it. As if he knew, that death by Naruto's hand was the way their story should end. Sakura wished she had the power to change this, to protect them both, to shelter them in her arms, but she knew that ever since Sasuke embraced the curse seal that this would be their fate.

_There was a lesson to be learned from this._

Sakura watched Sasuke launch a series of fireblasts at Naruto. Naruto dogged midair and redirected his body to land quickly. Then he launched backward twenty paces and sent a charka-powered tornado at Sasuke.

_Because it was never suppose to happen this way._

Sasuke sent his own tornado to meet it. He then formed thick charka strings from his fingertips. He flung them like a rope at Naruto in hopes of capturing him.

_Naruto was suppose to bring him back before he became such a monster._

It worked at first. Then Naruto drew on more power from the fox. Another two tails were added to his previous three and suddenly he had the strength to break free. He began running at Sasuke, like a deranged animal on all four paws, snarling as he went. Forty feet away from Sasuke, he leapt into the air.

_But life never ends up the way we want it to._

Sasuke followed suit with another gleeful laugh and jumped up to meet Naruto midair summoning Chidori as he went. Naruto saw and formed a Rasengan as his body fell downwards to meet Sasuke's attack.

_And sometimes, _

Their bodies drew closer. Orochimaru/Sasuke's hand glowed blue.

_the only thing we can do, _

The Nine-Tailed Fox/Naruto's hand glowed red.

_is to just watch_

Their attacks met in loud yell and scream and instantly a white light of destruction encompassed all three.

_ and wait for it all to end._

Another four years went by and where there once was a deserted wasteland, three small black stones sat in the center of a thirty-foot crater. But what is most surprising, and somewhat bizarre, is that somehow a tree managed to grow in the center of the crater. And every spring, its cherry-blossomed branches stretch to the sky and provide protection and shade for the three identical stones that reside at its trunk.

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_History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. – Maya Angelou_


End file.
